Yeah, I had a lot of trouble with this chapter too. The Toffee incident is perfectly symbolic of it. As you said, Dudley's already taken down a peg, but then so are the Dursleys. People have tried to say that what the twins do isn't Muggle-baiting because they're not picking on him *because* he's a Muggle, but I think that's nonsense. Muggle-baiting refers to playing magical tricks on Muggles, because Muggles can't do and don't understand magic. Doing this to Dudley is Muggle-baiting. It's like, if you knew a blind person who was really obnoxious would you play mean tricks on him by using his lack of sight against him? You could, but it would still cross the line.
That, unfortunately, is just all through this chapter. The Dursleys are helpless whether they're behaving badly or not. They're not really given any say over whether Harry goes or not, Arthur busts right into their house the way he wouldn't with a wizard. Even Arthur's anger at them for being rude to Harry falls flat to me, which is weird. Last night I was re-reading Jane Eyre and thinking how I'd love to have an outsider come in and yell at the Reeds to make them treat Jane properly. The problem here is that the Dursleys are so terrified I think I can't imagine them saying good-bye to Harry even if they weren't being rude. In fact, I almost think they'd have played nice simply out of fear. The fact that they continue to be rude seems almost brave.
It's just really...this is the essence of bullying that drives the whole series. As was said above, it's not enough for Snape that Sirius and Remus have been beaten down by life, he needs to bully them. The Dursleys were taken care of back in book 1 when Harry got to be a wizard.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-09-08 02:21 pm (UTC)That, unfortunately, is just all through this chapter. The Dursleys are helpless whether they're behaving badly or not. They're not really given any say over whether Harry goes or not, Arthur busts right into their house the way he wouldn't with a wizard. Even Arthur's anger at them for being rude to Harry falls flat to me, which is weird. Last night I was re-reading Jane Eyre and thinking how I'd love to have an outsider come in and yell at the Reeds to make them treat Jane properly. The problem here is that the Dursleys are so terrified I think I can't imagine them saying good-bye to Harry even if they weren't being rude. In fact, I almost think they'd have played nice simply out of fear. The fact that they continue to be rude seems almost brave.
It's just really...this is the essence of bullying that drives the whole series. As was said above, it's not enough for Snape that Sirius and Remus have been beaten down by life, he needs to bully them. The Dursleys were taken care of back in book 1 when Harry got to be a wizard.